Irish border backstop: many unanswered questions and considerable economic challenges

What happens to Northern Ireland once the UK leaves the European Union has become one of the most complex issues in the Brexit negotiations. The problem stems from the fact that the Good Friday Agreement has been interpreted as precluding a return to a hard border - that is, any physical infrastructure - between the North and South of the island of Ireland. Billy Melo Araujo (right) and Federico Lupo Pasini (Queen’s University Belfast) write that the so-called backstop option that is currently on the table is an imperfect solution that needs further work. They conclude that many many unanswered questions persist and considerable challenges may still arise from that solution, especially economic ones.